Tag Archives: Alabama Power

Southern Company Annual Stockholder Meeting @ SO 2015-05-27

Solar power made much of SO’s increased energy revenues for 2013 and 2014. What else will we learn at the Southern Company 2015 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, Wednesday, May 27, 2015? Has Southern Company finally looked up, and will it say, like Thomas Alva Edison in 1931, “I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy”?

To attend the SO shareholder meeting you have to have owned stock by Monday, March 30, 2015, or you’ll need to get somebody to appoint you their proxy. Since I’m an SO stockholder, I got the 216-page Southern Company Notice of 2015 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, Proxy Statement and 2014 Annual Report, page D-8:

In 2014, wholesale revenues increased $329 million, or 17.7%, as compared to the prior year due to a $326 million increase in energy revenues and a $3 million increase in capacity revenues. The increase in energy revenues was primarily related to increased revenue under existing contracts as well as new solar PPAs and requirements contracts primarily at Southern Power, Continue reading →

Plant Scherer country’s dirtiest again!

Southern Company #1 and #2! We get most of our electricity from #1 coal Plant Scherer near Macon, and 1/4 of its power goes to Florida, dirtying our air. SO says it’s worst only because it’s one of the biggest. But it still emits more greenhouse gases than any other power plant in the country. #2 is only about twice as far away, and it’s also Southern Company.

Kate Sheppard wrote for Huffpost 10 September 2013, Biggest Polluters In U.S. Ranked By Greenhouse Gas Emissions In New Report,

The top five individual plants were:
  1. Georgia Power Company’s Plant Scherer
  2. Alabama Power Company’s James H. Miller Jr. Plant
  3. Luminant Generation Company’s Martin Lake Plant in Texas
  4. Union Electric Company’s Labadie Plant in Missouri
  5. NRG Texas Power’s W.A. Parish Plant
These power plants, said Julian Boggs, Environment America’s global warming program director, “are the elephant in the room when it comes to global warming.”

The report, America’s Dirtiest Power Plants, by Environment America, says (page 5) Plant Scherer alone produces 0.4% of all U.S. CO2 emissions and 0.1% of all the world’s. Plant Miller emits almost as much, so that’s 0.8% of U.S. and 0.2% of world CO2 emissions from just the top 2 Southern Company coal plants.

How about we insist Georgia Power and Southern Company get on with solar power inland and wind off the coast to replace all those coal plants and the water-sucking nukes, too?

-jsq

Farley 1 reactor tripped

Nuclear reactor Farley 1, about 125 miles from here tripped off its Reactor Coolant Pump Buses yesterday. They plan to get around to informing the press about it real soon now; they didn’t even tell the NRC until today. Maybe somebody would like to call Farley and ask what’s going on? “The Farley plant resident inspectors can be reached by calling 334-899-3386.” Maybe ask them what caused all those other downtimes at Farley over the years; maybe also about Browns Ferry and Hatch, where new Resident Inspector Phillip Niebaum previously worked. Southern Company CEO Thomas A. Fanning asked us to look at SO’s safety record.

NRC Current Event Notification Report for June 12, 2013,

Event Number: 49106:
Notification Date: 06/12/2013
Notification Time: 01:33 [ET]
Event Date: 06/11/2013
Event Time: 21:05 [CDT]

UNIT 1 AUTOMATIC REACTOR TRIP DUE TO THE LOSS OF A START-UP TRANSFORMER

“This is a report of an automatic RPS actuation and automatic ESF actuation per 10CFR50.72(b)(2)(iv)(B) and 10CFR50.72(b)(3)(iv)(A). Additionally, this is to report intentions for a press release per 10CFR50.72(b)(2)(xi).

1 month Farley 1 nuclear reactor status percent power “At 2105 CDT on 6/11/13, Farley Unit 1 experienced an automatic reactor trip from 100% power. The initiating event was the loss of the 1B Start up Transformer which resulted in de-energization of the B-Train ESF 4KV buses and the 1B and 1C Reactor Coolant Pump Buses. The 1B Emergency Diesel Generator auto started and tied to the B-Train 4KV Emergency buses.

“Both MDAFW Continue reading →

Utilities levy an absurd tax upon the rest of their fellow-citizens –Adam Smith

What’s next door to Georgia Power, also a Southern Company, and raising rates on customers who are using less electricity? Alabama Power.

Rebecca Smith wrote for WSJ 21 March 2013, Return Rates for Utilities Get Harder Look

Households getting electricity from Alabama Power Co. are using 6% less than five years ago. But their monthly power bills still have increased by an average of 8%, partly because of a lucrative rate agreement that the utility brokered with state regulators 30 years ago.

“an absurd tax upon the rest of their fellow-citizens”
—Adam Smith

The deal allows Alabama Power, the state’s largest electric utility, to adjust its rates annually to maintain a return on equity, a measure of profit, of 13% to 14.5%. Now it is coming under fire from consumer advocates and one state utility commissioner, who argue that the utility’s profit levels are too high.

Continue reading →